.British police find martyrdom video
BRITISH police claim to have found a "martyrdom video" in which one of the 24 British Muslims arrested over an alleged plot to destroy up to a dozen passenger aircraft sets out his reasons for joining the planned suicide attack.
British officials said the damning evidence had been found in the home of one of the suspects, who include a 23-year-old biochemistry student and a Heathrow security guard with an all-areas access pass.
The guard was in his airport uniform when he was arrested and led away in handcuffs.
The suspects are mostly of Pakistani origin but two are white converts to Islam. Abdul Waheed, 21, changed his name from Don Stewart-Whyte six months ago after growing up as the son of a Conservative Party official.
Neighbours said Waheed, whose father died when he was 14, had abandoned a life of drugs and alcohol when he became a Muslim, and was working as a salesman at an electrical store.
Another convert, 25-year-old Oliver Savant of east London, had changed his first name to Ibrahim.
Each of the converts grew a beard, shaved his head, began wearing white robes and married an Arabic or south Asian Muslim woman.
Waheed, of High Wycombe, west of London, and Savant were arrested on Wednesday night as hundreds of police swooped to head off what they allege would have been a deadlier attack than the 9/11 World Trade Centre disaster. Most of the suspects were described by neighbours as devout Muslims.
Another two of those arrested in High Wycombe were named as cricket-loving brothers Amjad and Assad Sawar. The brothers, in their 20s, are married and live in a semi-detached house with their wives and parents.
"They used to play football with everybody down the park up until about three years ago," one neighbour said. "Since then they have been very quiet."
Other neighbours said the men had recently shunned their local mosque and had started to wear more traditional clothing and visit an Islamic bookshop.
Witnesses in Birmingham said they saw up to 20 police chase two brothers, who ran away but were caught.
British officials said they acted after learning that the 24 men were planning to conduct a "trial run" as soon as this weekend and that, if it worked, they would have gone ahead within days and blown up a number of packed holiday-season flights to the US.
Police have not yet found any explosives or chemicals but a US congressional source told reporters the plotters planned to mix a British sports drink with a peroxide-based compound to make a potent explosive that could be ignited with an MP3 player or mobile phone.
Pakistan announced that it had arrested two British men of Pakistani origin in Lahore and Karachi last week to help break the plot and said it had provided crucial information to help British investigators.
The Pakistani Government, which is keen to improve its reputation for fighting terrorism, also said it had detained the head of the militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba. However, it was not clear if that was directly related to the British plot.
US officials said money had been sent from Pakistan to the ringleaders, several of whom had visited Pakistan. Britain froze 19 of the suspects' bank accounts, which reportedly hold suspiciously large amounts of money.
The alleged plot led to a security clampdown on Thursday that forced the cancellation of 600 flights at London's Heathrow airport alone.
The knock-on effect at other airports disrupted the travel of more than 400,000 people.
Police say the plot involved taking liquid chemicals on board as hand luggage and using them to make explosives.
Security officials responded with the tightest-ever crackdown on hand luggage, which will continue for some time.
American officials said the plot was the most serious terror threat to the US since September 11, 2001, with President George W.Bush saying it was a reminder that his country was "at war with Islamic fascists".
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the scheme had been "really quite close to the execution phase".
"The conception, the large number of people involved, the sophisticated design of the devices that were being considered and the sophisticated nature of the plan all suggest that this group that came together to conspire was very determined, and very skilled, and very capable," Mr Chertoff said.
Despite a long-running investigation, intelligence agents had learned only in the past fortnight that the targets would be flights to the US.
Mr Chertoff said the plan had many of the characteristics of an al-Qa'ida operation - a so-called terrorist spectacular aimed at multiple targets.
The plotters are believed to have studied the timetables of three US airlines - American, Continental and United - and to have planned to attack flights to New York, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The ABC television network in the US reported that five suspects were still at large.
However, British police insisted they had detained all their known suspects.
Home Secretary John Reid said he had imposed the country's top level of security warning as a precaution in case there was some unforeseen back-up plan to launch another terror raid.
The Australian
I warned you "conservative" ideas will rot your brain.
British officials said the damning evidence had been found in the home of one of the suspects, who include a 23-year-old biochemistry student and a Heathrow security guard with an all-areas access pass.
The guard was in his airport uniform when he was arrested and led away in handcuffs.
The suspects are mostly of Pakistani origin but two are white converts to Islam. Abdul Waheed, 21, changed his name from Don Stewart-Whyte six months ago after growing up as the son of a Conservative Party official.
Neighbours said Waheed, whose father died when he was 14, had abandoned a life of drugs and alcohol when he became a Muslim, and was working as a salesman at an electrical store.
Another convert, 25-year-old Oliver Savant of east London, had changed his first name to Ibrahim.
Each of the converts grew a beard, shaved his head, began wearing white robes and married an Arabic or south Asian Muslim woman.
Waheed, of High Wycombe, west of London, and Savant were arrested on Wednesday night as hundreds of police swooped to head off what they allege would have been a deadlier attack than the 9/11 World Trade Centre disaster. Most of the suspects were described by neighbours as devout Muslims.
Another two of those arrested in High Wycombe were named as cricket-loving brothers Amjad and Assad Sawar. The brothers, in their 20s, are married and live in a semi-detached house with their wives and parents.
"They used to play football with everybody down the park up until about three years ago," one neighbour said. "Since then they have been very quiet."
Other neighbours said the men had recently shunned their local mosque and had started to wear more traditional clothing and visit an Islamic bookshop.
Witnesses in Birmingham said they saw up to 20 police chase two brothers, who ran away but were caught.
British officials said they acted after learning that the 24 men were planning to conduct a "trial run" as soon as this weekend and that, if it worked, they would have gone ahead within days and blown up a number of packed holiday-season flights to the US.
Police have not yet found any explosives or chemicals but a US congressional source told reporters the plotters planned to mix a British sports drink with a peroxide-based compound to make a potent explosive that could be ignited with an MP3 player or mobile phone.
Pakistan announced that it had arrested two British men of Pakistani origin in Lahore and Karachi last week to help break the plot and said it had provided crucial information to help British investigators.
The Pakistani Government, which is keen to improve its reputation for fighting terrorism, also said it had detained the head of the militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba. However, it was not clear if that was directly related to the British plot.
US officials said money had been sent from Pakistan to the ringleaders, several of whom had visited Pakistan. Britain froze 19 of the suspects' bank accounts, which reportedly hold suspiciously large amounts of money.
The alleged plot led to a security clampdown on Thursday that forced the cancellation of 600 flights at London's Heathrow airport alone.
The knock-on effect at other airports disrupted the travel of more than 400,000 people.
Police say the plot involved taking liquid chemicals on board as hand luggage and using them to make explosives.
Security officials responded with the tightest-ever crackdown on hand luggage, which will continue for some time.
American officials said the plot was the most serious terror threat to the US since September 11, 2001, with President George W.Bush saying it was a reminder that his country was "at war with Islamic fascists".
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the scheme had been "really quite close to the execution phase".
"The conception, the large number of people involved, the sophisticated design of the devices that were being considered and the sophisticated nature of the plan all suggest that this group that came together to conspire was very determined, and very skilled, and very capable," Mr Chertoff said.
Despite a long-running investigation, intelligence agents had learned only in the past fortnight that the targets would be flights to the US.
Mr Chertoff said the plan had many of the characteristics of an al-Qa'ida operation - a so-called terrorist spectacular aimed at multiple targets.
The plotters are believed to have studied the timetables of three US airlines - American, Continental and United - and to have planned to attack flights to New York, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The ABC television network in the US reported that five suspects were still at large.
However, British police insisted they had detained all their known suspects.
Home Secretary John Reid said he had imposed the country's top level of security warning as a precaution in case there was some unforeseen back-up plan to launch another terror raid.
The Australian
I warned you "conservative" ideas will rot your brain.
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